Before My Time is about the ancestry and extended family of my four grandparents: John Samuel Krentz (Indiana/North Dakota), Margreta Tjode Hedwig (Gertie) Buss (North Dakota), Rosmer Pettis Kerr (Pennsylvania/Michigan), and Evelyn Elvina Hauer (Michigan). Archives, Labels (tags), and other links appear at the bottom of the page.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I'm still playing with my new toy, the heirloom photo family tree I introduced a few weeks ago. I've added some new items to it. Above is a silver treasure chest. On the front it says, "The love between a Grandmother and Grandchild is a priceless treasure." I added charms for the birth months of each of my grandchildren. Each charm has a Swarovski crystal on the front, and the name of the month on the back. I made a little montage of my five grandchildren for the frame inside the chest.

There's plenty of room left in there for some of my tiny keepsakes from my grandparents Kerr:

an odd little bead from Evelyn's collection of doodads--it's a replica of a bar of soap, and it says "IVORY" on one side and "Proctor & Gamble" on the other. I hope it's not real ivory!

a little watch that's lost its chain and doesn't work anymore--it's about ¾" across and is engraved "EK" on the back. I've photographed this watch and used it as a page trim in my digital Evelyn and Rosmer scrapbook.

The next item has taken a little time to put together. It's a big "Mom" locket, and it's loaded with really neat stuff!

Starting with the outside:

the little blue locket that contains snippets of my grandfather's moustache--you can see the inside here.

a charm that I had engraved with my mom's initials after this picture was taken

a locket charm just under an inch in diameter--I made a tag with her name on it to identify the contents, which we'll get to in a minute . . . aw, you know what's comin', don't ya?

an October birth-month charm

In the outer locket, I put pictures of my mom and dad together, one at the very beginning of their relationship, and the other after they'd knocked out quite a few years. (A 50th Anniversary picture? Off the top of my head, I'm not sure. I'll try to remember to update here if I find out.)

Finally, the inner sanctum:

upper left locket charm--that's me, and a tiny lock of my hair tied with a tiny turquoise ribbon

upper right locket charm--my sister Kathleen, and a tiny lock of her hair tied with a tiny kelly green ribbon

This is so cool. I love teeny treasures and miniature things. I still have my duaghter's dollhouse, and all the teeny things we collected for it. That bar of ivory soap would look cute in the little bathtub! Someday she'll want to have the dollhouse for her own little girl....

I love your tree. I have one like that sitting on my piano but it doesn't have many photos on it. You have given me inspiration to decorate it with some antique grandmother and grandfather brooches and some old lockets I have. I also belong to a Lifestyle writing class where our assignment this week is to write about an heirloom. Beautifully done. Thank you for sharing.

Lori, you'll have a great time fiddling with that locket. So many possibilities!

Barbara, thanks! My photo secret is white paper and ambient light. I'm using my iPhone camera these days so the pix aren't as good as they would be with my Olympus, which is currently dysfunctional. I gotta get that thing fixed!

Our Family in Books: A Bibliography

My Ancestors in Books (a library of resources and notes pertaining to Reverend Samuel Stone, Major General Robert Sedgwick, Elder John Crandall, and other early Americans in the forest where my family tree was grown)

History of St. James Lutheran Church [full title: A little of this and a little of that in the 141 year (1861-2002) History of St. James Lutheran Church, Reynolds Indiana] by Harold B. Dodge, published at Reynolds, Indiana, 2002; 170 pages.

Lisbon, North Dakota 1880-2005 Quasuicentennial, published at Lisbon, North Dakota in 2005; 391 pages.